Genetics Reveals The Mysterious Origins Of The German Cockroach

Using genetics to identify the origin and the global path of the ubiquitous insect pest, the German cockroach, could help us develop more effective pesticides to control them.

© by GrrlScientist for Forbes | LinkTr.ee

The origin of the German cockroach, Blattella germanica, has baffled people for hundreds of years because it is ubiquitous globally in urban areas but absent from any natural habitats anywhere in the world. Further complicating matters, it was given a variety of names, depending upon people’s biases. For example, the Russians called it the “Prussian cockroach,” whilst British and Prussian soldiers knew it as the “Russian cockroach.”

“Despite its name, Blattella germanica did not originate in Germany; the famous Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus named the species after the area where specimens were collected,” the study’s senior author, evolutionary entomologist Theo Evans, an Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Western Australia, said in a statement. Professor Evans is recognised as a global expert with extensive experience in behavior, ecology and evolution of invertebrate species mostly living in terrestrial habitats.

“And there are no known natural wild populations of this cockroach, so it is fully domesticated.”

But despite hundreds of years of speculation, no one could point to where this species actually did come from. But finding its original…